Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

(Image courtesy of Nestle's Very Best Baking Site)

We had my mother-in-law over for dinner and dessert to celebrate her birthday last week, and I was looking for something a little different than a cake. I stumbled upon this recipe, and I knew it was a winner. This is absolutely the easiest pie I have ever made - it's even easier than making chocolate chip cookies. It took me less than two minutes from the time I started my mixer until the pie was in the oven. If you are looking for a SIMPLE, very quick, and delicious recipe, this is a great go-to. It's one of those recipes that you can remember and not have to even consult the recipe in the process. We served it warm with homemade vanilla ice cream.

Here is the link to the recipe.

I did make a couple of changes. I omitted the nuts since I didn't have any on hand, and I added a teaspoon of vanilla. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. In the future, I would use mini chocolate chips since mine all sank to the bottom. It didn't change the flavor at all, but it looked a little off when we cut into it. That didn't change the fact that we gobbled it up so quickly I was unable to get a picture, though!

Sidenote: My favorite restaurant dessert (at least my favorite every-day restaurant dessert) is the Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie from Chili's. It is the only one I crave. Of course, it was deemed one of the 20 worst-for-you desserts in America. =P This pie could be almost exactly the same by adding walnuts and coconut to the filling and hot fudge and caramel sauce to the top of the ice cream. Delicious!

Killer Cookies

On the afternoon of Superbowl Sunday, I got the urge to bake some cookies to take alongside our other goodies to the Superbowl party. I wanted to change up the traditional chocolate-chip variety. I remembered a recipe I had seen online called Killer Cookies. The original recipe stated that these cookies alone had made over $1,000 at a bake sale. Trying it was a must. My alterations were only due to my limited pantry contents. But, they were so good I'm not sure I'd change it in any way. Here's my spin on things:

Killer Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Mix these dry ingredients in a bowl, and set aside

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

Cream these with a mixer. Then add, one at a time,

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon pure Mexican vanilla

Gradually mix in the dry ingredients. Then, stir in

2 cups Rice Krispies cereal

2 cups old-fashioned oats

2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

The mixture is really crumbly and difficult to mix, but it will all come together. I found that it was easiest to scoop the cookies with an ice cream scoop (the squeezable kind). Any other method just made everything fall apart.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes on greased cookie sheets. Then, allow the cookies to cool about 10 minute on the sheet. Try to avoid the temptation to dive right in as they will be WAY too messy to handle while hot.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Update

Ironically two people mentioned tonight that they made the chocolate chip cookies recipe that I posted. And both commented that their cookies came out flat. The only reason I can think that they'd be different is the altitude and humidity. We have no humidity here, so that could be the problem. Shortening makes cookies cakey-er =), so I would try using half shortening, half butter. If you like the butter flavor, Crisco makes butter flavored shortening.

Let me know if you make them again and if this helps!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever!

This recipe is cross-posted on our family blog, but I wanted to make sure it was documented here as well with the proper credit. I cannot say enough about this recipe. Since high school I have been on the quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. I've tried countless combinations and ratios of ingredients trying to perfect the cookie. This is definitely it in my mind. I love the fact that I don't have to use my mixer, the cookies are thick and gooey, and just basically everything else about this recipe. Yum! I'll post the recipe as I follow it with the credits below:

Jaay's Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

· 2 cups all-purpose flour

· 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

· 1/2 teaspoon salt

· 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

· 1 cup packed brown sugar

· 1/2 cup white sugar

· 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

· 1 egg

· 1 egg yolk

· 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat (or grease the pan if you do not have either of these handy).

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.

Meanwhile, melt the butter. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, egg, and egg yolk adding each ingredient one at a time and mixing until combined. Add the dry ingredients in thirds to the wet ingredients, and mix until combined. Over mixing will lead to tough cookies.

Using a 1/4 cup cookie scoop, drop the cookie dough onto the parchment-lined baking sheet at least two inches apart. (My baking sheet only holds 8 cookies since they're so big.)

Bake at 325 for 15-17 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Let cool on the pan for 1-2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. (Or, as we do, you can eat them right off the pan!)

Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

[I saw this recipe on the baby board I'm a part of. The poster had seen it on someone's blog who had seen it on a baking website. ]